The Shanghai Majors Open Qualifiers 2016

The Shanghai Major’s Open Qualifiers ran from the 3rd to the 6th of January. This was the opportunity for amateur teams from each region to qualify for the Main Qualifier and a chance to participate in the tournament for a chunk of the $3,000,000 prize pool. To qualify, these teams had to be consistent enough to win many games in a row; all games were Bo1, except for the two last matches that were Bo3.

Two amateur teams from each region were given the chance to participate in each Regional Qualifier. Each region featured two qualifiers in which the semifinalist from the first one had the chance to participate in the second.

The first one to qualify for America is Team Freedom. This squad is made of 3 players from the U.S., 1 from Canada and 1 Korean. Even though their members are from different countries and cultures, they were steady throughout the entire qualifier, and only lost a game against DreamIsTrue. Big part of the reason why they did so well is that one of their members is ixmike88, who is a known veteran in Dota. His experience and guidance was surely one of the reasons why they will be competing in the American Qualifier.

The second qualified team is Elite Wolves. This Peruvian team was also impressive. They finished 2nd in the first qualifier and managed to win the second one. This team was formed by the famous Peruvian player SmAsH. They managed to practically stomp their way to the finals in the second qualifier. In their last game against Infamous, they won with two heroes that were forgotten before this patch: Lone Druid and Weaver. Even though their lineup was mainly for late game, they ended the game around the 30 minute mark. This says a lot about their aggressive playing style, which is signature in every Peruvian team.

Americas: Team Freedom, Elite Wolves

China Open Qualifiers’ games were much longer on average than America’s. Chinese teams are methodic and don’t like to risk results too much, so this wasn’t a surprise. The finals for the first qualifier were between EHOME.King and CDEC Avenger, with the latter resulting the winner with a 2-0 score.

Sadly, EHOME.King looked beaten down after losing the first qualifier and ended up losing the first game in the second qualifier, which threw them out of the tournament. This time the winner was TongFu. This team has some history in Dota 2: they finished third in The International 2013. They are now featuring one of the most experienced and praised supports in Dota history: Faith, who won Ti2 with Invictus Gaming.

China: CDEC Avenger, TongFu

For Europe, the two qualified teams were Mamas Boys and London Conspiracy. The former team was created by an experienced player: Pajkatt, who has played for numerous teams like Alliance, mousesports, Team Tinker and more. On the other hand, London Conspiracy also features an experienced player: 13abyKnight. He was a member of the famous Dota 1 team Meet Your Makers, and he’s now looking to come back to the Dota 2 competitive scene after trying StarCraft II for some years.

Europe: Mamas Boys, London Conspiracy

Finally, SEA qualifiers’ first finalist was Mineski’s recently registered and new second squad: Mineski-X. This one is another team that features a personality from Dota 1: WinteR. He was a former Chess player for Malaysia that became one of the most famous Dota personalities. The last game Mineski-X had in the qualifier wasn’t easy at all. The game against Extremist Dota2 was a hard one and lasted for 52 minutes. Nevertheless, they managed to win the series 2-1 and qualified for the regionals.

Just like happened in the American Open Qualifiers, the team that finished second in the first qualifier managed to win the second one. Extremist Dota2 made the second qualifier look like it was too easy; they didn’t lose a single game from the round of 32 to the finals.